Tag Archives: milk

A HowGood Rating at the Grocery Store Will Make You a More Conscious Consumer

I’d never given much thought to milk. It’s just milk after all. When my daughter turned one last year and started drinking it, suddenly milk wasn’t just milk. In my mind there was milk that I wouldn’t dare let her drink, and there was the best milk I could possibly give to her. I didn’t want her tiny body being exposed to unnecessary hormones, chemicals, or anything else that milk has been getting a bad rap for. I just wanted her to simply have a cup of the protein-rich food that would help her grow to be the big girl that she now thinks she is, on the cusp of a second birthday.

Standing at the grocery cooler inspecting the dozens of options before me, in the end I had a package and price to go off of. I had to weigh the two and make my selection. However, if I were researching my milk purchase today, I might be able to consider the product’s HowGood score. Horizon would have no “globes,” Stonyfield would have a “good” score with one globe, and Organic Valley would have a “very good” score with two globes.

You have no idea what I’m talking about, but Alexander Gillett is working really hard to change that. He and his brother, Arthur, launched HowGood four months ago. They’ve scored more than 100,000 products and awarded each of them zero to three globes. The more globes, the more sustainable the product is.

Alexander explained that with the HowGood sustainability rating displayed right on the price tag at the point of purchase people can expand their decision based on more than price and package claims. He says they’ve found that people are willing to pay a little more for a “greener” product. “The reality is a product that is sustainable costs a little bit more,” he told us.

This is why the “best milk” isn’t always going to be determined by a price or marketing. He explained that the “best milk” may cost even 15 cents more than its seemingly similar competitor, but customers are willing to pay that. “The best-rated milk product saw an increase in sales of 36 percent in one month, and continued over the next four months,” Alexander told us of actual stores sales where the HowGood label was used. (more…)

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Natalie K

Flavored Milks and Other Unhealthy Foods Eliminated from Los Angeles School Lunches

Parents of children in the Los Angeles School District have something new to talk to their children about when discussing healthy lifestyle choices: the absence of flavored milk in school lunches. On Tuesday, June 14, 2024, the Los Angeles Unified School District voted 5-2 to remove flavored milk options from its school menus.

Many school districts – including Washington D.C. –  have passed similar acts in their efforts to make the meals they serve their students healthier while also combating childhood obesity. Los Angeles is the largest school district to ban sugar-laden, artificially flavored milks from their lunches. This district serves 650,000 meals a day at 1,000 different locations. In addition to removing milk from their menus, Los Angeles schools will be removing other unhealthy options such as corn dogs, chicken nuggets, and other fast food items. In their place, the district is adding more vegetarian options, such as spinach tortellini with butternut squash and California sushi rolls.

“Absolutely, by the fall the district will be a national leader,” said a senior advocate for the California Food Policy Advocates, Matthew Sharp.

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Posted on June 16, 2023 by Health Buzz

5 Surprisingly High Sodium Foods

When you hear high sodium food, you usually think salty snacks: pretzels, chips, crackers and the like. You may be surprised, however, that some of the highest sodium foods aren’t salty tasting at all.

We all should be cutting down on our sodium intake, as recommended by the 2024 American Dietary Guidelines, so head to your pantry and see if any of these sneaky sodium-packed foods have found there way into your kitchen.

Breakfast cereals are notorious for not only being packed full of sugar, but sodium as well. Cereals “are more concentrated in salt than 50 to 60 percent of the items in the salty snack aisle,” says Dr. David Katz, founding director of Yale’s Prevention Research Center.

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Posted on March 31, 2024 by Kelly

Chocolate Milk the Best Post Workout Recovery Drink

Surprising, right?

Usually, when we think of chocolate milk, we think of children grabbing the sugary drink in the lunch line at school much to the dismay of their parents. Not many people picture a bottle of the sweet moo-juice tossed into the gym bag of the muscle-bound endurance athlete as a recovery drink. Research, however, tells us that chocolate milk is the best choice to refuel after your toughest workouts. Director of the Human Performance laboratory at Indiana University Physiologist Joel Stager’s latest study, published in January’s International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, names chocolate milk as the optimum choice for after a long workout.

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Posted on February 15, 2024 by Kelly

Organic Milk Is Healthier Finds Scientists

milk An European Union funded study found that organic milk is healthier after analyzing 22 different brands commonly sold in supermarkets. Researchers found that organic milk has higher levels of beneficial fatty acids but lower levels of saturated fats than conventional milk.

Although the paper itself does not explicitly say that consumers should switch to organic milk, the lead researcher, Gillian Butler, made that recommendation in other discussions of the findings. The study is published in the Journal of Dairy Science.

“We wanted to check if what we found on farms also applies to milk available in the shops,” said Butler. “Surprisingly, the differences between organic and conventional milk were even more marked. Whereas on the farms the benefits of organic milk were proven in the summer but not the winter, in the supermarkets it is significantly better quality all year round.”

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Posted on January 18, 2024 by Health Buzz

Breastfeeding Debate Irrupts in the UK

childIn 2001, the World Health Organization that mothers exclusively breastfeed their babies until six months, but now some scientists are worried that this practice may be harmful. An article published in the British Medical Journal presented evidence that failing to introduce any solid food before six months may increase a baby’s rick for iron deficiency, anemia and celiac disease.

However, Mary Fewtrell of the University College London Institute of Child Health says few mothers are able to follow the WHO guidelines, which were also recommended by the UK’s government starting in 2003. Fewtrell said that most mothers find that their babies want more food than they can provide before six months, and that few mothers feed their children exclusively breast milk before the age of six months. “About 1% were doing it in 2005, although probably more now,” she said. “But only about 20% breastfeed at all at six months. It is not a common behavior.”

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Posted on January 14, 2024 by Health Buzz

Dairy May Cut Diabetes Risk

We all know how good dairy is for bone health and that it can play a positive role in fat-loss, but now scientists believe that dairy may play another positive role in our health: reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Researchers have identified a natural substance in dairy fat that may substantially reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The compound, called trans-palmitoleic acid, is a fatty acid that is found in milk, cheese, yogurt and butter. It is not produced by the body and can only come from your diet.

Right now, you’re probably confused. After all, nutrition and health professionals have been telling us to choose low-fat dairy for years, right? Well according to the December issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, dairy fat is different in its make-up than other industrially produced trans fats found that are found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have been linked to higher risk of heart disease. On the other hand, trans-palmitoleic acid is almost exclusively found in naturally-occurring dairy and meat trans fats, which in prior studies have not been linked to higher heart disease risk, according to the study.

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Posted on January 5, 2024 by Jennipher

Whole Foods Introduces New Line of Soy Milk and Almond Milk

Got milk? What about chocolate soy milk? Or vanilla almond milk?

I love almond milk, and while I’ve been a devotee of Blue Diamond’s unsweetened vanilla almond milk, Whole Foods’ new refrigerated line of soy and almond milks are giving my usual stand-by some stealth competition.

Made from flavorful American-grown organic almonds, the new 365 Organic Everyday Value Almond milk is the first-ever private label organic refrigerated almond milk. (There is also a shelf-stable version, if you prefer.) Naturally free of saturated fat and cholesterol, Whole Foods Market’s Almond milk contains as much calcium and Vitamin D as dairy milk and is an excellent source of Vitamin E. The new line boasts a fresh, rich taste that comes in Original, Vanilla and Unsweetened flavors. (more…)

Posted on October 13, 2023 by heather

Hormone-Free Milk Can Keep its Label

Dairy CowThis past week a federal judge repealed the Ohio law banning “rbST free” and “rbGH free” milk labels. The court further ruled that milk from cows treated with hormones is constitutionally different from hormone-free milk, overturning the FDA’s finding that there is “no significant difference” between the two. The 17-year-old study was much-touted by those in the dairy industry who use artificial hormones to increase their production.

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit cited the following three differences in milk from cows treated with rbST and rbGH:

  • Higher counts of somatic cells, which means there’s more pus in the milk
  • A period of milk with lower nutritional quality during each lactation
  • Increased levels of the hormone IGF-1, which is an insulin-like growth factor

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Posted on October 6, 2023 by Health Buzz

Best Milk Containers for the Environment

Many times in grocery stores when you are at the check-out counter, you will be asked paper or plastic. That question now extends to your milk purchase, as milk comes in a variety of containers and travel varied distances to get your local store.

In a research study performed by Pablo Paster, an environmental consultant for Treehugger.com, one of my favorite eco-friendly websites, the environmental impact was measured for a quart of milk. The 4 types of containers tested were cardboard, plastic, glass and TetraPak, which is a method used to allow milk to be stored unrefrigerated prior to opening.

Included in the measurement was how the milk container was manufactured, transported and stored. (more…)

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Amy

Flavored Milk Better for Children Than Nothing

Kids prefer flavored milk. It’s pretty obvious, right? When given the choice, not many kids choose regular milk over chocolate. This, no doubt, raises the concern of increased sugar in the diet of school-age kids. The National Dairy Council has recently published news that negates this concern. Studies show that kids who aren’t offered flavored milk at school simply choose not to drink milk at all.

The impact of this study is larger than it seems at first glance. Reportedly, 58 schools were included and each one exhibited dramatic drops in milk consumption when flavored milk was taken off the breakfast and lunch menus. Some schools boasted a 50 percent drop, although the average was 35 percent. It occurred to me that perhaps the kids just needed to get used to their new options. Strangely, the study didn’t see any rise in the percentage of milk-drinkers even after a year or more of partaking in the study.

If kids refuse to drink regular milk, we could always supplement their diets with other food that contains the same nutrients, right? Although this is a decent and well-thought out solution, it doesn’t really work. In trying to do this, their diet would incorporate more fat and calories, which actually increases the risk of obesity. Furthermore, it could cost up to $4,600 more a year to feed every 100 students. (more…)

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Theresa